Chapter 616: Fury and Fallout in the Sea of Stars

As the blistering blast of the micro black hole finally faded, the battered form of the Serpent Demon Dominator—its skull nearly half gone—reappeared before Song Chi against the backdrop of a quieted cosmic storm.

Clearly, though the onslaught had left it gravely wounded, it wasn’t enough to knock the creature out of the fight.

Maybe it was the relentless barrage, or maybe something deeper—but instead of fleeing, this Seventh-Tier Serpent Dominator’s fury ignited. Crimson blood boiled through its massive body, its slit-pupiled eyes glowing wild red as it slipped into total berserker rage.

Bloody steam wove together with Dominion Power, surging with frightening force as the Dominator hurled its colossal ten-thousand-kilometer mass straight at the Heavenly Ruin.

“Antimatter Evolution Engine – High Overload Burst!”

The black engine mounted on the Heavenly Ruin roared to life. The battleship’s speed multiplied in an instant, and the mirror warship beside it did the same.

Harnessing this new burst of speed, both main and support warships spun and hurtled away, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the enraged Serpent Dominator ahead.

Meanwhile, eight additional battleship projections responded very differently. Under Song Chi’s precise control, they charged straight for the Serpent Dominator without hesitation.

Crimson steam boiled off the creature, congealing into a raging flood of energy that surged toward the racing battleship projections.

Yet what happened in the next second made even the raging Dominator’s crazed, bloody eyes flinch with alarm.

Just before the eight projections collided with the tide of blood energy, a faint light shimmered into view across their hulls—one after another.

At first, the Dominator didn’t give it much thought—its white-hot rage was fixed solely on the tangible Heavenly Ruin and its doppelganger. But as those eight beams grew dazzlingly bright and the heat radiating from them intensified, a sense of dread finally crept in. Blood-colored energy rippled over its body as it tried to put on the brakes mid-charge.

But it was already too late.

In that instant, the eight miniature neutron stars finished their transformation. Searing heat capable of melting the strongest alloys enveloped the serpent Dominator’s entire upper body.

Since they were just phantom projections, the neutron stars weren’t as scorching as the real thing aboard the Heavenly Ruin. Even so, eight overlapping at once left the Dominator baking under a withering inferno.

And it still wasn’t over.

Buzzzz!

A piercing drone split the air as a streak of absolute darkness sped through the dwindling neutron blaze—driving straight into what was left of the Dominator’s skull.

That black streak tore clear through, revealing its true form—a long spear radiating endless night. Within its tip, a coiled ray of Void-Return energy waited, igniting inside the Dominator’s ravaged head the moment the spear pierced through.

What else could it be but the Immortal Spear?

Millions of miles away, still unsure whether the fight was truly over, Song Chi reached for another control module—when a system prompt chirped in his ear.

“Slayed a Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon—reward: one strand of Sixth-Tier Floating-Land Origin!”

Hearing that, Song Chi glanced over at the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar.

Seeing the soul-devouring progress jump straight to Stage Three, nineteen percent, he finally relaxed—there was no doubt, the Dominator was well and truly finished.

…

Out in the blackness of the star domain, a giant corpse floated among the stars, scattered with pools of silvery blood and charred limb fragments.

A warship more than a hundred sixty thousand meters long hovered in silence. Suddenly, it fired a silvery beam that struck the massive eight-armed carcass, causing it to rapidly shrink.

As the body dwindled to less than a kilometer, the warship fired a second tractor beam, reeling the corpse closer toward the cargo bay.

In the ship’s control room, Song Chi watched as the Sky-Domain AI performed its operations step by step. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes were restless—his mind anything but calm.

The truth was, Song Chi’s heart was overflowing with emotion right now.

Once upon a time, ships like the Zhulu-class Cruiser and creatures of the Fourth Tier in the Sea of Stars were all but untouchable for him. Yet in just a few centuries, the Heavenly Ruin could now face even Seventh-Tier Dominators head on.

How could he not be in awe?

Still, after the initial surge of emotion faded, he realized this was only natural.

Backed by the Omniverse Market, in these past six centuries, he’d acquired a trove of exceptional treasures.

Not to mention the legendary Timepiece Chessboard—a miracle among miracles. Even just combining high-grade oddities, golden and black, like the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, Black Hole Evolution Layer, Void Sea Projection Emperor’s Tomb, and the Antimatter Evolution Engine… all this power gathered in one ship. Was it really surprising the Heavenly Ruin had such might?

Besides, that Serpent Dominator they’d just faced was barely an ordinary Seventh-Tier. It probably hadn’t been in the Seventh Tier longer than three thousand years. Judging by its injuries, there was a good chance it was wounded fleeing the Serpent’s Fang Galaxy battlefield.

Just then, a ripple swept through the space behind them—the Unmoving Vajra and the Scorching Sea Blazer had arrived.

With help from two Dominator Worms, Song Shiyuan and the others had also managed to take down a Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon, though the other one slipped away after sensing danger.

Once the ships synchronized communications, Song Xingru’s voice rang out in the group chat.

“Hey kid, how’s your end? What happened with that Serpent Dominator?”

“Handled it,” Song Chi replied simply.

Hearing that, Song Shiyuan and the rest weren’t surprised—only pleased.

To them, Song Chi had probably pulled this off with the help of a Starry Sky Dragon Shark, and maybe even used the Market Projection Token.

Song Chi caught onto their guesses, but didn’t bother to explain.

When the group rejoined the fleet, they mapped out the Fire Serpent Galaxy using a rough starmap, then roamed its galaxies together.

With the Song Family fleet out of critical danger, the real trouble was brewing elsewhere—where the Blood Sui Yang Clan’s Star River-class Battleship and several Star-Annihilator-class Ships were locked in their hardest fight yet.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Above the Star River-class Battleship, the demon blade and the white jade tower still clashed with relentless fury.

Wave after wave of energy surged in every direction. By now, every surviving ship had either sunk or scattered, and the aftershocks of those collisions, while strong, no longer posed a huge threat.

But as time dragged on, the savage energy on the demon blade continued to rampage, while the projection of the Blood Sui Yang Clan’s Zhou Tian Star Tower started to show thin cracks across its surface.

Impressive as the Zhou Tian Star Tower was, it couldn’t unleash its full power in projection form. After nearly two minutes, it finally faltered, on the verge of total collapse.

About ten seconds later, the phantom white jade tower’s body had reached its limit—all those cracks about to split open.

The very next second, the tower’s projection faded completely. When demon blade clashed with starlit tower, the Eight-Armed Demon God’s blade finally prevailed.

The only silver lining was that the phantom Zhou Tian Star Tower had blunted much of the deadly edge—so the demon blade shone far less brightly now.

Inside the Star River-class Battleship, the man’s face twisted with worry as warning after warning sounded in his ear.

“Warning: Starship under external energy attack. Energy shield damaged: 18%. Immediate repairs advised.”

“Warning: Starship under external energy attack. Energy shield damaged: 46%. Immediate repairs advised.”

“Warning…”

After several prompts from the ship’s AI, the black quality energy shield—upgraded to Tier Eight—had already lost over 80% of its integrity.

Even though he triggered both repair modules at just the right moment, he still couldn’t prevent the total overload of the energy shield.

In the end, the now-dimmed demon blade slammed into the hull armor’s activated defense field.

Luckily, most of its energy had been spent—and with the hull’s defense field active, the Star River-class Battleship’s hull took only minor damage.

“That’s not right!”

Suddenly, the man’s pupils contracted. His gaze darted to the ship’s stern.

He’d just felt a faint trace of spatial disturbance.

No sooner had his eyes shifted than the whole ship shuddered violently beneath him.

Then came the deafening explosion.

Only then did the AI’s emergency warning cut in.

“A second Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon!”

At last, the man managed to grit out a warning.

That blow to the stern—it’d come from a second Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon.

Gripping a colossal axe thousands of kilometers long, its attack had nearly cleaved the back end of the Star River-class Battleship in two.

Already, the hull armor back there had taken over 50% damage, even shrinking by thirty percent from the blow.

Reacting instantly, the man activated another golden module, summoning a colossal titan spirit to guard the battleship—a special group defense component.

With the titan spirit gathered overhead, the Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon was shoved back. Unlike normal shields, this spirit projection could withstand even physical attacks.

Taking advantage of the moment, the man gave orders to a dozen Star-Annihilator-class Ships nearby—ordering them to focus fire on the two Eighth-Tier enemies—while he sent a portion of his consciousness deep into the Torch Ancestral Orifice.

…

Billions of light-years away, on the Xian Qin Continent, within the Torch Judgement Court.

Inside a vast main hall, dazzling prismatic radiance flashed again and again. To an outsider, each pulse would seem to carry with it a secret message.

Countless figures flitted about the grand hall, recording, relaying, and sorting those incoming signals.

Deeper within the hall, a wisp of chaos-imbued fire burned ever-bright, crackling with potent energy.

Standing silently before the chaotic flame was an old man—no energy aura, looking like nothing more than an ordinary elder. At that moment, another figure hurried in from behind him.

“My lord, priority alert—two Eighth-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons have appeared in the Fire Serpent Galaxy. One is summoning power from the Bottomless Abyss. Blood Sui Yang Clan’s Yang Song has issued an urgent SOS!”

Without opening his eyes, the elder’s answer was steady and aged: “Send the message to the front line command!”

At the same time, in another cosmic sector billions of light-years away…

In a massive stretch of starry space, a vast fleet was assembling. At its heart, a cluster of Star River-class Battleships encircled a single ultra-giant mothership—one with a hull over ten million kilometers long.

Inside that mothership, in the Torch Transmission Chamber—

Beep-beep-beep!

A shrill alarm abruptly sounded from the chamber.

“Received: latest priority alert from the Torch Judgement Court—Fire Serpent Galaxy, two Eighth-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons. Yang Song requests emergency assistance!”

Staff inside the transmission room immediately relayed the alert to another control space.

Outside, among the fleet, a Star River-class Battleship suddenly responded to an order—firing up its engines and speeding toward the massive mothership at the core.

As it approached a certain range, some hidden property of the mothership kicked in—the million-kilometer vessel instantly shrank by a factor of ten thousand, slipping inside the giant ship’s hull until it was barely a hundred kilometers long.

Flying down a passage, the miniaturized ship quickly arrived at a unique chamber.

The chamber itself was immense—a special high platform dominating the center, and above its gate, words were inscribed.

“Transdimensional Deployment Room”

As the mini Star River-class Battleship docked onto the platform, the entire deployment room blazed with blinding light—growing in intensity until it filled the whole space.

When the shine peaked, space rippled violently. As the brilliance faded, the battleship had vanished from the room.

Only then did a mechanical voice intone, “Deployment complete. This deployment room now locked.”

With that, strange sounds echoed as every entrance sealed shut.

But this was clearly not the only such room within the mothership—though their number certainly wasn’t large.

…

Back over the Blood Sui Yang Clan’s Star River-class Battleship in the Fire Serpent Galaxy, relentless attacks from both Eighth-Tier Serpent Demons had left the titan spirit shadow nearly faded away.

In the battleship control center, Yang Song’s face was grim. He was fully prepared for the worst.

If reinforcements didn’t arrive before the titan spirit projection collapsed, his only choice would be to retreat—no matter how much danger he left the dozen Star-Annihilator-class Ships in, or how harshly the Torch Judgement Court might judge him later. Right now, survival was all that mattered.

It was at that moment that a sudden, violent spatial fluctuation flared up off to the side.